Pacific Theatre in World War II

United States’ Involvement in the Pacific Theatre during World War IIOn 1 September 1939 the country of Germany led by Adolf Hitler invaded Poland using blitzkrieg tactics or in other words “lightning war”. As Germany is capturing Europe one country at a time Japan is doing the same except with Asia and Japan is also preparing for the attack of the United States naval base on the island of Oahu called Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor caused the United States to declare war on Japan, break isolationism and get deeply involved in World War II.

On 7 December 1941 at 7:30 am army privates George Elliot and Joseph Lockard were operating in a radar station when they noticed a large amounts of aircraft incoming but they did not sound the alarm because there was supposed to be a group of B-17 bombers due to Pearl Harbor (Michael 10). At 8:00 am the words “Tora Tora Tora” sounded over Japanese radios meaning that the Japanese have achieved complete surprise on the Americans and that the attack was a go and the dive bombers started to drop their deadly payloads on the American airfields, aiming specifically for United States war planes (Michael 11). As the Japanese attacked the airfields they also simultaneously attacked the harbor with more dive bombers and torpedo planes equipped with torpedoes specially made for the shallow waters of the harbor (Michael 12). During all of the chaos a dive bomber dropped its deadly payload on to the USS Arizona, with a single bomb hit to the magazine, the whole bow of the ship was severed from the rest and 1,000 men died instantly (Michael 12). At 8:45 am even more Japanese torpedo planes and dive bombers attacked the harbor targeting repair yards and any other ships that the pilots saw. The attack was planned months before 7 December, the Japanese built a model of the actual harbor to help prepare for the attack and they practiced on it until each and every pilot knew exactly which target to hit and how to hit it and until they could achieve an 80% hit rate on the American ships (Michael 47). The task force the Japanese used consisted of 6 aircraft carriers each equipped with hundreds of planes and 20 other ships including battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers and a few submarines (Michael 49). The attack killed 2,388 Americans and injured another 2,000, the attack destroyed 21 ships out of 92 total in the harbor, nearly 300 American aircraft were destroyed and only 29 Japanese aircraft were destroyed (Reid 219). The Americans were infuriated with the attack, they felt as if they were vulnerable and they wanted the United States government to declare war on Japan.

On 8 December 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a speech to congress asking them to declare a state of war on Japan. Later that day with a vote of 388 to 1 the United States is at war with Japan. The industry skyrocketed as the United States prepares for war; everything from food to weapons is rationed and made in a method called mass production. On 9 December 1941 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The United States is now deeply involved in World War II, but the United States has a difficult decision to make whether or not they should concentrate their forces over in Europe to fight the Italians and Germans or concentrate their forces in the Pacific and get revenge on the Japanese and avenge Pearl Harbor.

On 8 April 1942 Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle launched an air attack consisting of B-25 medium range bombers. The attack was designed to inflict damage on Tokyo and to destroy the Japanese morale and avenge Pearl Harbor. The plan was for 16 B-25s to be launched off the coast of Japan and their mission was to bomb the city of Tokyo and land on American air bases in China. Most of the 16 B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attacked the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya (“The Doolittle Raid”). However none of the planes made it to China and most of the crews were captured, but...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND EAST ASIA: JAPAN ON THE OFFENSIVE:
1941-42
When the nations of Western Europe became embroiled in WorldWarII, Japan began to expand into the Southeast Asian colonies of the European powers. After the United States retaliated with economic sanctions, Japan planned a concerted attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, and other Pacific and Asian targets. For a time Japan was master of the central and western Pacific and East Asia.
Japanese Expansion and U.S. Response: 1940-41
Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and its subsequent full- scale assault against China in 1937 brought expressions of disapproval from the U.S. government. With public opinion strongly isolationist, however, the United States did not act to halt Japanese expansionism. Not until the outbreak of WorldWarII in Europe and the escalation of Japanese aggression did the U.S. response become strong.
In 1940, Nazi Germany's march into Western Europe opened up opportunities for Japan to consolidate its position in China and penetrate Southeast Asia, thereby advancing the Japanese goal of dominating a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." After the fall of France in 1940, the Vichy government accepted Japanese demands that aid through...

...International Relations
Many people believed the end of the world will occur through a natural disaster, deadly disease, or a giant meteor hurling down towards earth, but lately, people are beginning to think the end of the world will occur because of foreign policy in international relations. We live in a world where many wrong acts are committed (countries possessing nuclear weapons, authoritive figures abusing their role and power, terrorist groups taking lives of many innocent civilians, denying citizens of the world basic human rights, aggressive protests, racism, and discrimination) but there are also things that occur in the world that try to prevent these misbehaviors from happening or if they are happening, gather as many people as possible to form a community that can stop them from continuing.
Political leaders or policymakers are blamed for the events going wrong around the world, or in some instances, praised for the good they are influencing. Why do these negative circumstances occur? What happened to make countries and citizens result in these behaviors? Whether it is looked at in a realist, liberalist, or constructivist manner, studying the history of a country and observing relations within itself and other countries will help us find the answer. This is similar to what historians are for but in the field of international relations, studying history helps us find clues...

...﻿ The beginning of WorldWarII. The contestants in WWII were divided into two groups, the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers. The following countries were in the Allied Powers: Soviet Union,United States,Britain, China, France, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Axis Powers consisted of the following: Germany, Japan,and Italy.
The Allied Powers during WWII were those that opposed the Axis Powers. At the beginning of war, Britain and the Commonwealth Nations stood almost alone, but the United States, China, and many other nations came and and joined the Allies.The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Italian,and Japanese aggression. It was very clear that Germany, Italy, and Japan were going to be defeated if WorldWarII wanted to come to an end.
The Axis Powers were the nations that fought against the Allied forces during the Second World War.The Axis powers joined forces by their opposition of the Western World and the Soviet Union. The Axis described their goal as “breaking the leadership of the plutocratic-capitalist Western powers and to defend civilization from communism.”
There were many causes to WorldWarII, but many of them were caused by individual leaders. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Of all the causes of WorldWar...

...Notes 32.2 Japan’s Pacific Campaign (page 931)
1) Setting the Stage
i) Japan, like Germany, sought to have an empire too, they took over Manchuria, and Northern China.
ii) Then they went into the heartland of China and expected a quick victory, but when the resistance was stronger than they expected, and the war dragged on, their economy was under stress
iii) They looked south toward European colonies of Southeast Asia
2) Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
iv) Americans cracked the Japanese code and were aware on invasion plans into southeast asia
v) The u.s. worried about their colonies and thus sent aid to the resistance, then when the Japanese proceeded to take over Indochina, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, Roosevelt cut off oil shipments
vi) They planned a surprise attack against the Euro colonial powers, and the U.S.
vii) Isoroku Yamamoto decided that Hawaii was a dagger in Japans throat and must be destroyed
a) Day of Infamy
viii) Japan attacked Pearl harbor, the U.S. knew something would happen but not where or when
ix) They sunk 19 ships, killed 2300, wounded 1100, and the news stunned americans
x) Roosevelt then addressed congress and said that it was “a date which will live in infamy,” Congress then accepted his request for war.
xi) At the same time, they attacked British Hong Kong, Guam...

...﻿Causes of WorldWarII
The culmination of events that led to WorldWarII are generally understood to be the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the 1937 invasion of the Republic of China by the Empire of Japan. These military aggressions were the decisions made by authoritarian ruling elites in Germany and Japan. WorldWarII started after these aggressive actions were met with an official declaration of war and/or armed resistance.
In the aftermath of WorldWar I, a defeated Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles.[6] This caused Germany to lose a significant portion of its territory, prohibited the annexation of other states, limited the size of German armed forces and imposed massive reparations. Russia's civil war led to the creation of the Soviet Union which soon was under the control of Joseph Stalin. In Italy, Benito Mussolini seized power as a fascist dictator promising to create a "New Roman Empire."[7] The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China[8] as the first step of its right to rule...

...﻿
War in the Pacific
U.S. Victory
2/27/2012
[Type the author name]
Bibliography
“USS Arizona Preservation Project 2004”, ____http://www.pastfoundation.org/Arizona/PearlHarborAttack.htm
“Pearl Harbor.org”, http://www.pearlharbor.org/ships-and-aircraft.asp
“Wikipedia- Battle of the Java Sea”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Java_Sea
“WWII Archives”, http://wwiiarchives.net/servlet/campaign/4/0
“WorldWarII: Battle of Midway - Turning Point in the Pacific”, ____http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari1/p/Midway.htm
“History Wars Weapons”, http://historywarsweapons.com/battle-of-leyte-gulf/
War in the Pacific
When discussing WorldWar 2, most people instantly think about the war that took place in Europe such as; the battles on the Eastern and Western fronts, and the more well-known historical events such as, the holocaust or the invasion of D-day. Not only were the battles fought on soil and in air important factors of the end result of WorldWar 2, but the war in the pacific led to many allied victories that helped determine the outcome of the war.
WorldWar 2 had, for the most part, remained in Europe until the Japanese attack on Pearl...

...Experience: War in the Pacific
Steve Smith
HIS/120
06/14/2012
James Hendrickson
The Military Experience: War in the Pacific
America had been watching the in Germany and Japan since it began but wanted more than anything to remain separated from it, after all American’s could not seem to find their way out of the depression.
Then on December 7, 1941 The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and America has
In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt seeing the rapid armament of Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union asked Congress for authorization to build 50,000 warplanes a year, just in case, Congress granted the request and many Americans found new employment for the government not only making the warplanes but also the manufacturing of guns and armor and other wartime necessities that were being shipped to our allies overseas.
In May 1940, Roosevelt asked and received a spending increase for National Defense and the authorization to send surplus arms to Britain, and in late 1940, Roosevelt gave Britain 50 navel destroyers calling them “the arsenal of democracy.” In 1941, Roosevelt declared the Four Freedoms; The freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear. America had taken its stand against socialism and communism. Roosevelt pressures congress to pass the Land-lease act, which allowed the United States to lend weapons and supplies to...

...﻿War
(Attracting the reader)Do you think there is a” just war” in the history of world? Do you think it is the only way to solve problem by war? (Providing background) Different people have different opinion. Herbert hover, who is the 31st President of the United States have ever said:” Whether you have to fight for justice or not, war is a crime! “In his opinion, whether the war is just or unjust, it is cruel, and the death is inevitable. Marxist thought, making clear the nature of war is the necessary premise to decide the attitude toward the war. Lenin had ever divided the war into reactionary war and revolution. And Mao Zedong further made the theory summary, and clearly point out that the war in the history is only just and unjust. All counter-revolutionary wars that hinder the progress of the history is just war, and all the revolution wars that promote the social progress is just war. The war the people for freedom and social progress, in order to get rid of the exploitation and oppression, or in order to safeguard national independence and resist foreign invasion is just. (Framing the question)But do you think what they said is absolutely true? Countries often regard the self-defense war or the nature of the national liberation...